Inside Out

Scripture:  Acts 13:42-52

  Jacob Albright was born to German immigrants in what was the British colony of Pennsylvania   Albright fought for the Pennsylvania militia in the revolution, and after suffering the tragedy of losing multiple children to dysentery he suffered a crisis of faith.  He had been baptized into the Lutheran church, but he did not find much comfort for his grief there.   He eventually found his faith in the holiness movement, specifically in a small Methodist class that met in someone’s home.  This rural Methodist community recognized Albright as an exhorter, today what we would call a lay preacher.  Albright felt called by God to preach the gospel to German speaking immigrants, and he felt an affinity to both the Methodist emphasis on holiness and its organizational structure.  Albright sought permission to fulfill his calling and formally preach and organize German communities into Methodist societies that spoke German.   However, Bishop Francis Asbury and others in Methodist leadership opposed this idea.  They insisted that if Jacob Albright was to continue as a Methodist lay preacher, then he could only preach in English. 

This happened because in 18th century American, especially in Pennsylvania, there was a strong anti-German sentiment.  We can find proof of this, somewhat surprisingly, in the writings of Benajmin Franklin.  Franklin wrote, “Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of us Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs.”

 It was this cultural bias that influenced the Methodist leadership to tell Albright not to preach in German.  Albright faced a church, bring the gospel to German speaking immigrants or stay Methodist.  Albright chose to preach the gospel, but as he did so he continued to use a very Methodist organizational structure.  After Albright’s death the German faith communities he helped create came together into a new denomination called the Evangelical Association.  The Evangelical Association had its roots in the holiness movement and German communities.  They were not the only ones and by the 1940’s these traditions had merged together in one called the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

As xenophobic fears often are, it turns out that Franklin’s fears of Germanization never came to pass.  Even though the Evangelical United Brethren church had its roots in German communities, it was thoroughly American and English speaking by the middle of the 20th century. The culture differences that led Jacob Albright out of the Methodist Church at the turn of the 19th century had been erased.  So, in 1968 the church that Jacob Albright had inadvertently founded, the Evangelical United Brethen merged with the Methodist Episcopal church to create the United Methodist Church. 

 The way that Jacob Albright was treated and how that treatment was influenced by cultural bias, is a dark spot in our Methodist history.   It is a dark spot that seems to loudly echo this morning’s scripture.  The Jewish leaders in this morning’s scripture let a bias against Paul’s message to the gentiles lead them to opposing the gospel.  Anti-German sentiment of the time led the Methodist leader of 1800 to oppose preaching the good news in German.  The message of the church, the good news of Jesus Christ, it is not just meant for insiders.  It is not just meant for people who fit a certain mold.  It is a message for everyone.  This morning’s scripture should cause us to ask ourselves are we letting something hinder who we share the message with? 

This morning’s scripture comes from Paul’s first missionary journey.  He is in the city of Pisidian Antioch.  This is in what is modern day Turkey, it was a city built up around a crossroads and as such was a trade hub.  We picked up the story right after Paul had delivered his sermon, making the case for Jesus, in the synagogue.  We see in this morning’s scripture what becomes a pattern for Paul’s missionary journeys.  Paul arrives in a city and initially shares the gospel in the synagogue.  While there may be Jewish people who believe the good news, the message inevitably moves beyond to the Gentiles and then there is Jewish opposition to Paul’s message.  While the details are different in each city, this is the common pattern that emerges.  

What is interesting in this instance is that initially Paul did not have any opposition.  Verse 42 states that the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.”  However, buzz about Paul and his message spread throughout the city so that by the next sabbath there was a large crowd, including a lot of gentiles or non-Jews.  This is where the trouble starts.   What was initially a positive reception goes south, when Paul and Barnabas begin sharing the good news with the gentiles.  This morning’s scripture mentions they were jealous.  They were not jealous that Paul got larger crowds than them, they were jealous because Paul’s message was not exclusive and just for them.    Some of the Jewish leaders did not like that Paul’s message was being shared with the gentiles, they did not like that the salvation he preached was not just for them, and they were not comfortable with the idea that the grace of Jesus Christ is for everyone.

Much like the 18th century Methodist leaders, the Jewish leaders of Pisidian Antioch let their own cultural biases get in the way.  While cultural biases certainly still exist today and have the potential trip us up, I doubt any church would purposely exclude anyone on a cultural basis.  We may not insist on excluding certain languages or be jealous that the good new of Jesus applies to a certain people group, but the unfortunate reality is that people still find themselves excluded from Christianity.  There are still insiders and outsiders.  

There is an old story that illustrates this.  The story goes there was a young boy who came from not the best family, and he was from the wrong side of the tracks.  He may have heard a preacher on the TV, or it could have been something else, but something got into him and he wanted to know more about Jesus.  So, one Sunday morning he left and walked across the train tracks and up the hill to the biggest church in town.   This was the kind of church that the phrase “country club church” was created for.   This was the kind of church that the right people went to so they could be seen.  This was the kind of church that took great pride in their stained-glass windows, Mahogany pulpit and silver candle sticks.   The boy walked into the church and sat down near the back.  In a few minutes the head usher came and tapped him on the shoulder and said he needed to move because he was in Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so’s seat.   Once the service started this unchurched boy was lost.  He did not know when to stand, when to sit, and what a hymnal was.  He tried to ask those around him for help but again found the head usher tapping him on the shoulder and telling him not to be a nuisance to others.    The service went on, and the boy got more and more confused and impatient.   Finally, in the middle of the sermon the boy raised his hand and said, “excuse me, can you tell me more about Jesus?”   There was silence, and the head usher stormed over to the boy, practically picked him up, and carried him out of the sanctuary.    The head usher said, “I do not think this is the right place for you” and pointed to the door.  The boy left the church, sat down on the curb and began crying.   A man stopped and asked him “what’s wrong.”  The boy looked up and instantly knew this man was Jesus.   The boy said through sniffles, “They kicked me out of there.”   Jesus smiled and said, “That’s OK, they kicked me out of there years ago.”

The church in the story is obviously a caricature.  Very few churches are stuffy and hostile.  Every church I have ever been in believes with all their heart that they are friendly and welcoming, but many churches do end up communicating to people, “I don’t think this is the right place for you.”  The way this most regularly happens today is by intentionally and unintentionally insisting that church is for the insiders.  It is for the people who are already there.  That is what made the church in the story so hostile to the boy.  There was an assumption that everyone just knew how things were done, and when that poor boy did not conform to that assumption it was not the right place for him. 

 This is an issue that we constantly must be cautious about.  Often one of the reasons why we keep coming to a church is because we are comfortable there.  We tend to like it when something comfortable becomes more comfortable and we tend to bristle when something that we find comfortable gets changed in the even the slightest.  It can be incredibly easy for churches to cater more and more to the insiders at the expense of anyone on the outside. We must be cautious of elevating our comfort, our own way of doing things, above the mission of making disciples and sharing the good news. 

Nashville based Pastor and church consultant wrote about this in one of his books.  He relayed a time that he was hired to consult with a church that was struggling with an aging congregation and shrinking attendance.  As he talked with the leadership he found them to be very resistant to the idea of change, so he eventually asked them , “What are you not willing to change, even if you were 100 percent certain that the change would cause more people to be reached for Christ?”

These church leaders discussed this and they actually created a small list of things they simply felt were out of bounds and that they could not ever imagine changing.  Stevens recorded his response when he wrote, “ I told them ‘the only acceptable answer to that question is nothing.  There can’t be anything you’re not willing to change if it means more people would be reached. . .Otherwise, you’ve forgotten your purpose as a church.” 

We can let our own personal biases and our desire to make things comfortable for ourselves lead us to be resistant to change.  In doing so we end up excluding people.  This is not how it should be.  Churches should not be placed dedicated to keeping the insiders in and the outsiders out.  In fact, it should be the exact opposite.  We should strive to get those inside out and those outside in.  We should strive to get outside our walls, to reach out into our community, and invite people in.  This certainly requires us to be willing to welcome and accept people who may have different backgrounds or perspectives.  It will likely require us to be open to change, and it may even require us to get a little comfortable with not always being comfortable.

Paul always started with the insiders in the synagogue, but it was for everyone.  He was not afraid to reach out to people who were different than he was.  He was not afraid to share the good news of Jesus with people who did not quite fit the mold of who normally attended the synagogue.   Because of that as verse 49 states, “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.”   In the same way, if we want the world of the Lord to spread throughout the whole region, then we must be willing to take the message of Jesus, the good news of salvation, the freedom of the forgiveness of sins, and the life changing reality of grace from the inside out.

 So may we be willing to share the good news, even if that means someone new ends up sitting in our pew.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if that means we have to be more intentional in reaching outside our walls and engaging the community.  May we be willing to share the good news, even if it means we need to be willing to make changes.  Like the story of Jacob Albright this morning’s scripture is a cautionary tale.  May we not let anything get in the way of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and may we be willing to share Jesus Christ with the world.